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Ertakar
(air-tah-kar)

Basics:
The inhabitants of the planet Sytous. They are dragon-like creatures, also often called simply Erta, or Kar, for short. Their race is highly advanced in genetics, and they have abilities of mild telepathy. Though, an interesting bit of information, because of their very long life span, and high status on the food chain, after having a child, Female Ertakar cannot become pregnant for about 18-20 so years. Although, a typical Erta family can have an average of 20-30 children in their lifetime. Also, unlike many other reptilian creatures, Ertakar's actually bare their young by live birth, similar to a type of snake we have. Though, females do not have mammary glands.

Appearence:
The Ertakars also can very greatly in physical appearance. There are 4 mains genetic strains of Ertakar, though the species is very mixed, an Erta's heritage can be identified by it's traits, and they are:

Harae-Kar (har-eh-kar) - The Desert Dwellers, both hot and cold deserts. Headcrests, hornless. Colors are White, Grey, and Tan
Silva-Kar (sil-vah-kar) - The Grasslands and Forest Dwellers. Ears, small horns on head, and the wings are slightly smaller than normal. Colors are Green and Yellow
Lapi-Kar (la-pii-kar) - The Mountain Dwellers. Plated scales, no horns, and shorter tails. Colors are Brown, Black, and Rust
Lace-Kar (la-say-kar) - The Waterside Dwellers. Long horns, and tail spades. Colors are Teal and Blue
Although, of the four, the Silva tend be more seperated, from the rest of the clans, due to the fact that they have smaller wings, and find it difficult to live in other reigons.

Society:
The clans can range from 100 to over 5,000 inhabitants, depending on what the resources are, and how old the clan is.
Each clan typically has a head ruler, that is determined by, first a collective vote by the inhabitants of the clan, then the current council of the clan. There is no time limit to how long the designated leader can keep their position, but if there is any violation of clan policies, the consequence is not only impeachment, but exile from the clan as well.
Council members are changed each 3 years. New council members are picked out at random by the former council, though, the background of each member is looked into, for the benefit of the clan members. Though some smaller clans tend to have different methods of leadership.

Religion:
Ertakar, as far as the general belief goes, in fact to not believe in life after death, but hold highly values and morals,for the reason, that they believe in the legacy they leave behind. Theybelieve the impact they can make in the lives of others, and thegreater the good, the more lasting and widespread the impact. Becauseof their believe that death is the end, they know that they cannot'redeem' themselves, or change the things that have happened, but whenyou're still alive, you can correct your wrongs, this concept onlyseems to greator encourage the Ertakar's overal humanitarian beliefs.
Ertakarare also very good historans, log and keep track of events and details,so and imapct made, possitive or negetive, is not easily forgotten tothem.
On a whole, the Ertakar with these beliefs tend to be ratheraccepting of other beliefs, as long as they are being taught the samebasic principles of respect and honor.

Skills:
One of the Erta's natural skills, is telepathy, used for communication.
The Erta, are quite technologically advanced, maybe slightly moreso than our own society, though the one thing the Erta are most advanced in, is Genetics
They're skills in genetics are only that of which we dream of. Many diseases are either cured, can be stableized, or are in the proccess of being cured.
It is also speculated that some Erta use genetic manipulation on themselevs to achive certain looks, sometimes as simple as a new color, or unique horn patterns, though, this is
frowned upon by most of the Ertakar society, that has never stopped such things from happening.

History:
The main turning point in the Ertakar's basic life style, was the war started by the Jura.
Invading Jura forces upon Sytous, in the Jura's desire to claim the planet as their own, forced the Erta to go to war.
In hopes of gaining an advantage in the war, the Erta's best genetisis worked on manipulating the genes of their own soldiers to make them look like Jura. Of course, the risks involved were drastic, and lives were lost in a processes that took over a year.
The final product, was Erta that could transform into a human form. Of course, the final human form had it's flaws, often times, discolored skin, or lack of hair, but such things could be masked easily.
Not long following this project though, were 2 other projects. Since they succeeding in making their own shapeshift, they wanted to see how far they could take it.
The first was a project that would allow the subject to shape shift into any form desired, complete genetic control. All of the voulenteers died due to constitional failure. No one was really sure if they succeeded, though the results of the experiments were locked away.
The second project was similiar to the first, though was to be more limited. The experiments resulted in the same failures, though there ended up being one or two that survived and completely adapted to their new abilities

Though, this did not last long, as around this time also, in effort to end the war, some Jura prisoners were spliced with Ertakar DNA. The act quickly brought the war to a hault, as soon as the Jura got word of the act.

Currently, Hundreds of years after the initial war, the Jura and Ertakar now coexist, both on Sytous and Jural.

See Also:
Jal-Kar
Muta-Kar